Innocence and Servitude
by Lanta
Summary: AU, oneshot. In a world where criminals are given as slaves to the family of their victims, Sirius is given to Harry.


**Author's notes (please read)**

This is just a one-shot, and was inspired by the story 'Every Boy Needs a Dog' by Juxian Tang. It is set in an AU where Sirius did not break out of Azkaban, and where murderers are given as slaves to the family of their victims after serving a twenty-year prison sentence. It is also very mild Harry/Severus slash but it's entirely possible to ignore it if you don't like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I have no connection at all to J K Rowling.

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Harry leaned back against Severus, his hand gripping the older man fiercely. Snape stood quietly, giving all the silent support that his lover needed.

Across the room, Remus stood grimly, his wife at his side. She had abandoned her normal bright-coloured hair for a dull brown more suited to the sombre occasion.

Dumbledore was the last occupant of the room, and his eyes lay gravely on Harry. This would not be easy on the boy who was the closest thing that he had to a son.

The door opened, and a young ministry secretary came in. "They're ready."

Snape nodded, and gently guided his partner through to the adjoining room. The walls were painted in a plain white that only contributed to the emotional stress of those present.

From the side of the room another door opened, bringing through two guards, and the prisoner. Sirius Black, once the well-off best friend of James Potter, and for the past two decades a resident of Azkaban prison. His body looked emaciated, but he looked nowhere near as bad as he would have done if the Dementors had still been in charge of the island.

His eyes fixed straight on Harry, instantly recognising the man who would be his master - and who, despite that, was still his godson.

He held the look for a few seconds, and then, without waiting for instructions from the guards accompanying him, fell to his knees, bowing his head to the floor. The prison staff waited for him to beg for mercy, or perhaps to make baseless threats against those present, but instead he said nothing.

Remus was the first to speak, and he said simply, "Sirius."

The man glanced up, looking in his direction, and for a second something approaching relief crossed his face. The guards took it to mean that he expected mercy; they had no way of knowing that his relief was from finding out that an old friend had survived the war.

He turned back to his new master, and said quietly, "Harry."

"Don't call me that. You don't have the right." Harry's voice was dripping with the loathing he felt. This was the man who had betrayed his parents; who had arranged their deaths. This was a murderer, who had killed without remorse, who had served the Dark Lord.

"Yes, Master." The voice was soft, accepting.

"Are you ready to perform the binding, Mr. Potter?"

Harry nodded at the prison administrator, who had just entered the pale room.

"And who will hold the secondary bond?"

"I will," said Snape quietly. It was merely a precaution, to make sure that there was someone who could take control if Harry was indisposed.

Sirius' head shot up again at the new voice. He had been so entirely focused on Harry that he had failed to realise the presence of his high school enemy. He said nothing, however.

"You know the binding spell?"

Harry nodded in affirmation, and lifted his wand. The incantation created a light around the kneeling man, and the addition of the words spoken by Snape made it shine even brighter. Without needing to be told, Sirius lifted his hand, enduring the cut made by the sharp knife, and allowing his blood to drip freely. The light faded, and he slumped forward as he felt the magic bind him firmly into his new enslavement.

"You've been through all the training, Mr. Potter, so you know how to handle him, but if you do need any help, don't hesitate to bring him back here."

"Thank you."

At Snape's direction, Sirius rose, and followed his new masters out through the hallways. He was unable to contain his reaction as he stepped into the sunlight for the first time in nearly twenty years.

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Standing in the hallway of the Potter-Snape residence, Harry turned grimly to his new slave. "Right. You should know that while I don't like slavery, I like you even less. You betrayed my parents – your best friends – and I am not going to make your life easy."

"I didn't betray James and Lily." His voice was weak, desperate, and yet resigned. The people who knew him best had believed him a murderer, why should Harry, who had never met him, do any differently?

Remus stepped forward in anger at this denial. "You were their Secret Keeper! You sold them out to Voldemort! I would kill you right now if it were my choice."

"I didn't kill them, Remus. I would never hurt James, or Lily. I'd have died rather than betray them."

"Obviously the courts felt differently," said Harry.

"Actually, Black was never given a trial," said Severus. "The Ministry didn't see the point."

"Oh." He wasn't quite sure what to say to that.

Sirius looked up from where he was once again kneeling on the floor. "Harry – Master – I know you won't believe me. You can do whatever you want to me, I won't fight you. Kill me if you wish. But I didn't betray your parents. I wasn't their Secret Keeper."

"You liar! James told me he'd chosen you!"

"No… they changed it to Peter, I asked them to… he betrayed them."

"You killed him!"

"He's not dead," Sirius said quietly. "At least, he didn't die twenty years ago. He faked his death."

Harry stared at the slave in disbelief. "You expect us to believe that?"

"He has an animagus form, Master. He used it to make it look like he died."

Dumbledore felt it was finally the time to speak. He had been watching the conversation with a peculiar expression on his face. "There is a definitive way to check his story, Harry."

Harry glanced at him, and then nodded, turning to his lover. "Severus –"

"I have some in my stores. Hold on."

He left, and Harry turned back to the kneeling man. "If you're lying, as I suppose you are, I will punish you. Harshly."

"I'm not lying, Master."

There was silence in the room for a short time, until Snape entered, a small vial in his hand. He went straight to Sirius, who obediently opened his mouth to have the drops of Veritaserum placed on his tongue.

"It should have started working by now."

Dumbledore nodded, and asked a few simple questions to start. Satisfied with the answers, he got to the crux of the matter. "Did you betray James and Lily Potter?"

"No."

The one word provoked a mass reaction around the room. "But –" Remus began, in shock.

"What did happen, Sirius?"

Quietly, the man told the story of Peter being appointed Secret Keeper, of his betrayal, and of his subsequent 'death' and framing of Sirius. At the end of it, Remus felt weak, and felt his knees give slightly, forcing him to grasp onto Tonks for support.

"It's okay, Remus." Sirius spoke to his old friend, but was looking at his master and godson. "I don't blame you for thinking I was guilty."

Harry was still recovering from the shock of finding that the man he had hated for years was innocent. "Sir – Albus – isn't there any way that he could have fooled the Veritaserum?"

"Certainly not from having been in Azkaban, Harry. He would have needed ingredients, a cauldron… no, the Veritaserum is working."

"What I'd like to know is, what happened to Pettigrew," said Snape with a growl.

Remus suddenly stood erect. "This might be a long shot, but… Harry, when you were in your third year… I seem to remember that Ron lost his rat."

Harry blinked. "Yeah he did… what does that have to do with anything?"

"That was the year I taught at Hogwarts, Harry. And Peter's animagus form was a rat."

Harry stared at his former professor. "Are you saying the person who betrayed my parents is Ron's rat? The one who was _sleeping in my dorm room for over two years?_"

"It's possible, Harry," said Dumbledore quietly. "Seeing Remus in the school, he may have decided to flee from Hogwarts."

"I never saw Pettigrew at meetings," said Snape. "But then, the Death Eaters wore masks a lot of the time anyway so I never did know who everyone was. Assuming, of course, that Pettigrew would have had the courage to go back to the Dark Lord in the first place."

"He was a Gryffindor," said Tonks dryly.

"Not much of one." Sirius' voice was rough and filled with hate.

"So we're really decided then?" asked Harry, his mouth feeling dry. "Sirius is innocent?"

"I think so, Harry. Unfortunately, I doubt that we have enough evidence to convince the Ministry."

Harry gazed, stricken, at the man that he had never known as his godfather. Sirius looked at him, something between sorrow and resignation on his face.

"It's okay, Harry. I've known this would happen ever since I went to Azkaban, that I'd be given to you. Having you believe I'm innocent – knowing that you survived, and that Remus is still alive – that's as much as I could have hoped for." His eyes searched the younger man's face, and he said softly, "You look so much like your father, Harry. Except for your eyes. You have…"

"My mother's eyes." Harry walked over to the other man, and bent down to help him rise to his feet.

"I might not be able to free you," he said quietly, "but I won't treat you as a slave. This… I haven't quite taken it all in yet, but I think I'd like to get to know you. My father's best friend."

"And your godfather."

Harry nodded.

Sirius frowned. "Can I just ask… what is Snivellus doing here?"

Harry blinked. "Who - oh. You mean Severus. He's my… we live together."

Sirius stared at him. "Please tell me that's platonic."

"Not at all." Snape came and stood behind Harry, enjoying the look on Black's face as he wrapped his arm around his lover.

"Oh." He really wasn't sure what to make of that, but the first reaction was horror.

"He's not as bad as he seems," said Harry, entirely used to people's negative reactions when they first found out that he was in a romantic relationship with the much-despised Potions teacher.

Remus came forward. "Sirius…" he broke off, and the two men looked at each other for a few seconds, and then wrapped their arms around one another in a fierce hug. As they parted, the werewolf gestured to the woman leaning against the front door. "This is my wife, Tonks. We got married two years ago."

His eyebrows rose, and he shook the hand of the young woman, whose hair turned to a dark blonde as she greeted him.

"Well," said Dumbledore as they parted. "I think we should all go into the living room and sit down. Cups of tea all round, I think."

Realising that they were, in fact, still standing in the front hallway, the group moved to the comfortable back room, where Sirius sat in an armchair for the first time in over two decades. They talked quietly, each still unable to believe what had happened.

Just one hour earlier, Harry and his friends had gone to Azkaban prison, expecting to come back with a slave and a criminal, a murderer who had betrayed Harry's parents. Instead they had come back with someone who had been unjustly enslaved, an old friend for some of them, and a godfather to another.

An innocent man.

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**End note**

As I said, I envisaged this as a one-shot, and at present I have no desire to write any more of it. If anyone fancies writing their own sequel, contact me and I might say yes if you have a good enough idea.


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